157, Lot: 389. Estimate $100. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Roman Æ Weight. Circa 5th century AD. Square Solidus(?) weight (17mm, 4.19 g). Peter, proconsul. P-P F MENE / PETRI-PROC, inlaid with silver. Cf. Bendall, Weights 174 for another plaque with proconsular title. Fine, tan patina.

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection.These small flat plaques may not be weights, but tokens of some kind. The titles associated with the names, proconsul, praefectus urbi and similar, and the legend renovavit found on some specimens suggest they marked the restoration of public building. Dressel called them dedicatory plaques, but perhaps they were workmen’s tallies for public works projects. Also intriguing is the formula P-P, normally used in the title of the Pope. Could P-P F indicate Pope Felix II (483-492)?